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CIA furious over UK-Libyan bomber release deal

September 8, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Al-Megrahi

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The CIA has threatened to stop sharing intelligence with UK spy services in protest over the recent release from a Scottish prison of a Libyan intelligence agent convicted for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, according to a British newspaper. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who is now back home in Tripoli, was released by British authorities on August 19 on compassionate grounds, after medical tests allegedly showed he is suffering from terminal cancer. Many observers, including former CIA agent Robert Baer, voiced suspicion about the reasons behind al-Megrahi’s release, while several British newspapers, including The London Times, alleged that the release was part of a lucrative oil exploration deal between British Petroleum (BP) and the Libyan government. Now an article in British newspaper The News of the World claims that the CIA leadership has vowed to terminate intelligence cooperation with the UK over the Libyan’s release. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, Africa, Binyam Mohamed, BP, British Petroleum, CIA, Cuba, energy resources, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, intelligence cooperation, Libya, Lockerbie air disaster, News, Pan Am Flight 103, Robert Baer, Scotland, torture, UK, United States

News you may have missed #0097

September 6, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Assessing CIA role in detainee deaths will not be easy, because of bureaucratic barriers, say some intelligence insiders.
Polish ex-president denies he was communist spy. Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland from 1995 to 2005, has denied allegations that he worked with Polish spy agencies during the country’s communist period. Lech Walesa faced similar claims earlier this year.
Are doctors involved in CIA waterboarding guilty of war crimes? A report by Physicians for Human Rights says doctors supervising CIA torture committed war crimes under the Geneva Convention.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Aleksander Kwasniewski, bureaucracy, CIA, Cold War, Lech Walesa, News, news you may have missed, Physicians for Human Rights, Poland, torture

News you may have missed #0091

September 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

McCain denies private agreement with CIA torture tactic. A recently released memo suggests that Republican US Senator John McCain, famous for his stance against torture, privately agreed with a CIA six-day sleep-deprivation technique.
CIA rejects further declassifications on torture-related material. The CIA said on Monday that it would release no more documents related to the Bush administration’s torture and detention policies, because disclosing the information “will threaten national security”. The ACLU called this an affront to the Obama Administration’s policies.
Taliban kill Afghan intelligence chief. Abdullah Laghmani, who headed the National Directorate for Security (NDS) was among at least 23 people, including a number of senior officials, killed in the suicide attack. This was one of the few times that the Taliban specifically targeted intelligence officials.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdullah Laghmani, ACLU, Afghanistan, assassinations, CIA, declassification, John McCain, National Directorate for Security (Afghanistan), News, news you may have missed, Obama Administration, sleep deprivation, suicide bombings, Taliban, torture, United States

Ex-CIA agent says Cheney “damaged the CIA more than anybody has”

September 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Robert Baer

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Robert Baer, the retired CIA field officer whose bestselling memoir, See No Evil, formed the basis of the 2005 motion picture Syriana, has said that former Vice President’ Dick Cheney “damaged the CIA more than anybody has, including the press or the Department of Justice”. Speaking on PBS’ The Tavis Smiley Show, Baer claimed that Cheney was the leading proponent of the CIA’s torture program, which the Bush Administration “invented as we went along”, and which never provided any critical intelligence. Baer said that in some cases FBI interrogators resorting to torture tactics extracted false leads from detainees. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Bush Administration, CIA, Dick Cheney, Iraq, Iraq War, News, Robert Baer, torture, United States, War on Terrorism

Comment: CIA Insiders Issue Torture Probe Warnings

September 1, 2009 by intelNews 4 Comments

A.B. Krongard

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Sensing that a government probe into its post-9/11 practices is around the corner, the CIA has employed its usual practice of issuing public warnings through friendly news outlets. Several Agency insiders appear to have simultaneously decided to break their customary silence. Speaking to The Washington Post, they sternly warned that “[m]orale has sagged at the CIA” because of the rumored government investigation into torture of detainees and other controversial intelligence projects.

News you may have missed #0086

August 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

New book examines history of Finnish domestic intelligence. The history of SUPO, Finland’s Security Police, is detailed in a new book by Professor Kimmo Rentola of Turku University.
Ex-KGB agent doesn’t regret sanctuary decision. Mikhail Lennikov is still living in a Vancouver church, defying an order of expulsion from Canada on national security grounds.
CIA used Canadian research for torture. The US Central Intelligence Agency used Canadian research to determine how cold they could make a detainee in water, newly released documents show.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with book news and reviews, Canada, CIA, Cold War, deportations, Finland, history, KGB, Mikhail Alexander Lennikov, News, news you may have missed, SUPO (Finland), torture, USSR, Vancouver (Canada)

News you may have missed #0085

August 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

How the ACLU got the CIA agents’ photos. As intelNews reported earlier this week, the ACLU has been trying to identify CIA agents who participated in torture of detainees, by taking surreptitious pictures outside the operatives’ homes. It is worth noting that uncovering the identities of CIA officers is legal, so long as it is based on publicly available records.
Russian espionage case is bigger than initially thought, say Czech officials. Intelligence authorities in the Czech Republic say the two Russian agents who were recently expelled from the country last week were not primarily interested in the US missile defense shield.
US spy community builds Wikipedia-style database. Intellipedia, the intelligence community’s version of Wikipedia has grown markedly since its formal launch in 2006. It now averages more than 15,000 edits per day and is home to 900,000 pages and 100,000 user accounts.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, CIA, Czech Republic, databases, espionage, Intellipedia, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, Russia, torture, United States, US Missile Defense Shield, Wikipedia

News you may have missed #0082

August 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

The spy who prayed. Profile of As’ad Said Ali, deputy chief of Indonesia’s National Intelligence Agency, who is actively involved in Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization.
Shadowy Turkish group used journalists as spies. Ergenekon, a shadowy ultranationalist network with strong links to the Turkish armed forces, which planned to topple the Turkish government, used journalists to spy on its high-profile targets, according to court documents.
CIA sacked Baghdad station chief after deaths. The CIA removed its station chief in Iraq and reorganized its operations there in late 2003, following “potentially very serious leadership lapses” that included the deaths of detainees in US custody.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with As’ad Said Ali, Baghdad (Iraq), CIA, CIA Baghdad station, coup plots, Ergenekon, Indonesia, Indonesian Muslims, informants, Iraq War, Nahdlatul Ulama, National Intelligence Agency (Indonesia), News, news you may have missed, torture, Turkey, United States

CIA loses turf war as new US interrogation unit is unveiled

August 27, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

CIA HQ

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The CIA appears to have been stripped of its senior role in America’s post-9/11 interrogation program, as the Obama Administration announced this week the creation of a new interrogation unit. The new High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) will be an elite interagency squad, which will report to the National Security Council and answer directly to the White House. But, according to several insiders, the unit will be housed at the FBI, and not the CIA. The two agencies have been fighting a bitter turf war after 9/11. Officials at Langley view this development as a severe blow to the Agency, which the Bush Administration had tasked with overseeing America’s post 9/11 interrogation program. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 9/11, Bush Administration, CIA, FBI, High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, intelligence outsourcing, interrogation techniques, Ishmael Jones, National Security Council, News, Obama Administration, torture, turf wars, United States, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0080

August 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

UN human rights commissioner rejects immunity in CIA abuse cases. Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has said there should be no immunity from prosecution for torture of terror suspects by CIA agents.
Iran accuses popular reformist of links to British intelligence. Iran says that Saeed Hajjarian twice met MI5 spy John Keane. Iran’s former intelligence minister, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, who was purged earlier this month, is the chief prosecutor in the case.
Sri Lankan army chief’s cook was LTTE spy. Sri Lankan authorities have said that the cook of former Sri Lankan army chief, General Sarath Fonseka, was secretly working for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, espionage, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, human rights, informants, Iran, lawsuits, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE, MI5, Navi Pillay, News, news you may have missed, Saeed Hajjarian, Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka, torture, UK, United Nations, United Nations High Commission for Human Rights

World poring over released CIA documents

August 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA report cover

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
It will take some time before the world’s media and other interested parties manage to comb through the recently released report (.pdf) by the CIA inspector general, as well as a host of other newly declassified documents pertaining to the Agency’s post-9/11 interrogation program. The volume of data is so extensive that some news outlets are apparently requesting assistance from readers. The report on the CIA’s counterterrorism detention and interrogation activities between 2001 and 2003 is not new. It was originally produced in May of 2004 and was released in 2008 by the Bush Administration, in a heavily redacted version. Although the current release is less heavily redacted, several observers have questioned the wisdom of remaining redactions (the National Security Archive has published a useful side-by-side comparison of the Bush and Obama Administration versions of the report). Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Bush Administration, CIA, declassification, interrogation techniques, News, Obama Administration, torture, United States, War on Terrorism

CIA certified interrogators after two-week training

August 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dick Cheney

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Among numerous revelations in the CIA interrogations documents, released Monday, is information which suggests that the Agency haphazardly certified spies as “interrogators” after training them for only two weeks. Canadian newspaper The Toronto Star appears to be the only news source that has picked up on the revelation, noting that it takes twice that long to train an individual to drive a truck in the United States. It appears that the CIA resorted to the haphazard certification process shortly after 9/11; never prior to that time had the Agency been involved in the interrogation business on a large scale. The documents also show that, until 2003, Langley routinely supplied CIA interrogators with conduct rules that tended to change from case to case. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, declassification, Dick Cheney, intelligence training, interrogation techniques, News, torture, United States, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0076

August 24, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Revealing CIA report published today. The CIA is expected to come under some of its toughest scrutiny for years, after the publication today of a report detailing the agency’s use of mock executions, and the threatening of detainees with power drills and guns during interrogations.
North Korean spy director meets South Korean officials. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met a delegation of visiting North Korean officials on Sunday, including Kim Yang Gon who heads the United Front Department (UFD), an intelligence agency under the Korean Worker’s Party (KWP) of the DPRK.
Changes imminent at South African spy agency. The administration of President Jacob Zuma intends to move to restructure South Africa’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the country’s primary domestic spy organization. In July, a former member of South Africa’s ministerial Review Commission on Intelligence warned that a steadily declining culture of accountability in the country’s spy services is threatening the country’s constitutional order.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, intelligence reform, Kim Yang Gon, Korean Workers' Party (North Korea), Lee Myung-bak, National Intelligence Agency (South Africa), News, news you may have missed, North Korea, South Africa, South Korea, torture, United Front Department (North Korea), United States, War on Terrorism

FBI investigates attorneys for trying to identify CIA torturers

August 21, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The Washington Post and The New York Times are reporting three military attorneys at Guantánamo Bay have been questioned by the FBI for allegedly showing pictures of CIA operatives to prisoners accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks. In some cases, the pictures were taken surreptitiously outside the operatives’ homes. The lawyers were apparently trying to identify agents who may have been involved in torturing prisoners at US jails overseas. But US military officials say the lawyers could have broken laws shielding the identity of classified intelligence. The FBI investigation is reportedly headed by John Dion, head of the US Justice Department’s counterespionage section. Dion has worked on several high-profile national security cases, including the prosecution of Aldrich H. Ames, the CIA double agent who spied for the USSR. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, Aldrich H. Ames, Anthony Romero, CIA, FBI, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, John Adams Project, John Dion, lawsuits, News, torture, United States, US Department of Justice, USSR, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0068

August 13, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US overt aid to Pakistan revealed. The United States provided around $15.4 billion in overt aid to Pakistan between Fiscal Years 2002 and 2009, according to a newly updated Congressional Research Service tabulation.
Intolerance of Arabs, Muslims led to torture, says US interrogator. Former Air Force Major Matthew Alexander is promoting his book, How To Break a Terrorist: The US Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq.
China drops Rio Tinto espionage charges. Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto faces charges of stealing commercial secrets and bribery, but the Chinese government has dropped charges of spying.